The road to becoming certified is not the easiest journey but it is rewarding. If you haven’t read Amy Demski’s personal experience on her journey, please click here. A brief overview on how to become certified is that you either need to be sponsored by a hospital to receive training at the Epic Systems HQ or you will need to work at Epic Systems. Of course, there are other proactive ways you can go about your own journey to become certified. Look for a hospital who is transitioning their systems to Epic and work on their team during that transition. That may be one of the best ways to get your foot in the door if you cannot do the other two options.
Is Getting Certified Worth It?
Besides the probable rapid increase in pay, becoming Epic certified broadens the number and value of opportunities that are available to you. Many hospitals HIM departments specifically require that every person on the project has a valid and up to date Epic certification. In periods of high demand, this forces the hourly rates and FTE salaries up. For those people who manage to get multiple Epic certifications, the demand for their skills in particularly fierce. As they represent a smaller proportion of the entire Epic talent market, they are perpetually sort after for their skill base. Multiple certifications show how broad a knowledge of the subject the person has, and that they have a long term, real interest in Epic’s application.
On the down side, having multiple certifications means you constantly have to renew and update your certs with continuing education courses. However, the value they return is enormous.
How Much More Money Would I Make If I Was Certified?
From a purely full-time employee standpoint these are the top 5 paying Epic careers:
- Epic Application Coordinator – $112,000
- Epic Project Manager – $102,000
- Epic Analyst – $97,000
- Epic Report Writer – $87,000
- Epic Trainer – $85,000
Source: Epic Salaries
Compared to non-Epic healthcare IT careers:
- Clinical Coordinator – $48,622.00
- Project Manager Healthcare – $75,474
- Healthcare Analyst – $72,755
- Data Analyst/Report Writer – $67,377
- Healthcare Technology Trainer Salaries – $58,758
Source: Glassdoor
These top 5 Epic careers have an average of $96,600 and non-Epic careers have an average of $64,597. On average, there is a difference of $32,000 in salary between an Epic certified career and non-Epic. That is a huge gap of income that you are potentially missing out on. Something worth mentioning is that the difference in income more than triples for contract Epic Consultants compared to non-Epic FTE’s. If you are not working for Epic Systems, an average certification cost thousands of dollars. If you are on average earning $32,000 more before you were certified, the costs will already be paid off. If you are interested in finding out which states pay more for Epic consultants, please click here. To discuss how you might go about acquiring multiple Epic certifications, feel free to contact us. To discuss how you might go about acquiring multiple Epic certifications, feel free to contact us directly.
This article was created by Stephanie Sok, Business Researcher, Global Healthcare IT, Inc. and the following base line articles: For more on each please click on the link.
Stephanie can be reached on ssok@globalhit.com.
